Big Idea: Jesus affirms the exceptional importance of John as the prophetic herald of the kingdom of God.
Understanding the Text
John’s public activity had ended with his imprisonment (3:20), though we have heard since of his continuing influence (5:33). Now Luke invites us to consider how the ministries of John and Jesus relate to one another, and he ensures that his readers will not devalue John. This is important in the developing story, as Jesus will be perceived by others as John’s successor (9:7–9, 19) and will himself affirm that connection (20:1–8). This section is linked with the immediately preceding narrative (7:1–17) in that those incidents provide important evidence of Jesus’s messianic role, as he will claim in 7:22.
Outline/Structure
Three separate units make up this com…